Space, the Final Frontier?
Are we alone in the universe? This is the question that billionaire tech investor Yuri Milner hopes to answer. Asia Tatler had the privilege of getting an exclusive with Yuri and his wife Julia in California, where our chief content officer and Hong Kong Tatler’s managing director Sean Fitzpatrick headed to the 130-yearold Lick Observatory where the photo shoot took place. It was a quick session as Yuri only had a couple of hours to spare before he had to head back for business in Silicon Valley. Yuri and Julia Milner are the founders of the Breakthrough Prize, a foundation that’s co-funded by the who’s who of Silicon Valley—mark Zuckerberg, Pricilla Chan, Sergey Brin, and Anne Wojcicki. The foundation bestows scientists with awards and hefty cash gifts in recognition of their outstanding achievements. This is their way of driving technology forward, advancements that will aid their second, more extraordinary mission: to find evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Find out more about the Milners and their philanthropic work in ‘Written in the Stars’, page 152. Next, we highlight three billionaires (Rocket Men, page 162) who are in a race to realise affordable space travel as they believe that this is the new Wild West, a frontier that demands to be explored. We follow that up with an interview with renowned Malaysian astrophysicist Datuk Mazlan Othman (Solar Flair, page 170), who established the National Space Agency, Angkasa, and spearheaded the astronaut programme which resulted in sending Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Sheikh Shukor to space. Full of vim and vigour, Datuk Mazlan serves as inspiration to us all, as she boldly and bravely sought to put our country on the highly evolved field of astrophysics and the sphere of astronomy. Truly, our future depends on science, and science depends on our youth. These words by musician Will.i.am are the basis of the Breakthrough Junior Challenge (Bright Young Things, page 186) which is spawned by the Breakthrough Prize. This contest encourages students aged 13 to 18 to share their ideas in the areas of fundamental physics, life sciences and mathematics. Priscilla Chan succinctly said, “Every journey in science starts with a moment of inspiration. That’s why we started the Breakthrough Junior Challenge, to give students around the world a chance to share what inspires them.”